FK season 3 episode "Sons of Belial"
Aug. 15th, 2023 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switchbladeeyesOh boy, another good one. Turns out demons are real in the FK universe, which means we get the FK version of "The Exorcist" but without a 360 degree head turn.
We start with the victim driving herself off an unfinished freeway to her fiery doom. Nick and Tracy investigate though it turns out there isn’t much to investigate because there is no actual crime here. But their path leads them to exorcist Max Vanderwal so that we can finally get to the good stuff: Nick's demonic possession!
We see it happen at the exorcism-in-progress when Nick and Tracy go to talk to Vanderwal, but Nick doesn’t know in the moment that it’s happened. Something is "off" about him though. He swerves his car when he hallucinatess an inquisitor from the Spanish Inquisition suddenly in the road. (Cue obligatory, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"). People around Nick start having physical reactions. A robber literally kills himself after, idk, looking into the void in Nick's eyes. There's a cold feeling at the station. Reese comments that people have been going home sick. There's a smell like a sewer leak at the station, which I'm assuming is not a sewer leak, but the smell of brimstone. Then the guy working on the ventilation system mysteriously gets zapped while by electricity. And Nick starts having physical reactions like something has got its grip on him. Good stuff.
Nick heads home and starts having visual and auditory hallucinations, and he looks to be losing control of himself. This demon has got to be so pumped to have landed in a vampire, the Cadillac of bodily hosts. So where's a demon ready for some action going to go? We know exactly where. (Cue the Cheers theme song.)
At the Raven, Nick immediately starts vamping out in the middle of the club and is picked up by a hot chick also looking for a Good Time. Dang you two, get a room. Conveniently, a back room at the club is available. Things heat up FAST and that's worrisome vis-a-vis the young lady's mortal existence until you see, hot damn, she's a vampire too. But things still get out of hand when Nick starts strangling her. And while we know Nick has been down for vampire frisky times at the Raven in the past, (1) this chick is not Janette, and (2) Nick's not going to engage in non-consensual choking. This is just not how Nick, at least our modern Nick, rolls.
LaCroix, meanwhile, is in top creeper form as he delightedly and voyeuristically appears on the scene. The female vampire manages to break free. Before she flees, LaCroix grabs her and threatens her into keeping her mouth shut. Because if there's one person who definitely does not care about victims of assault, it's LaCroix.
He gleefully gives his greetings to Nick, just tickled that Nick "has come back to [his] senses," though he suggests Nick dial it down just a smidge. Nick, for his part, is clearly in great distress because the fact of demon possession is finally clicking for him and he tells LaCroix about the exorcism. But for Lacroix, Nick losing control, feeling bad about it, and making lame excuses isn't exactly new ground. He's like, no, no, this is totes fine ("It is merely your true nature coming to the fore.")
Nick is adamant that he's possessed and that LaCroix must take him to the exorcist. LaCroix's response is effectively a LOL, NO. At which point, Nick grabs him by the throat and demands he do it. This demon's got a thing for choking. Well, it's one thing to assault a rando vampire you just met, and quite another when it's your master vampire. LaCroix's Not Happy about that and corrects Nick immediately, but even he starts to look a teensy bit disturbed at what he's seeing as Nick BEGS for his help.
And LaCroix takes Nick to the exorcist!!
WHAT is happening!? Where is LaCroix and what have you done with him!? He doesn't even actually believe there's a demon at this point, just believes Nick believes it (which, idk, seems like a "so what" from the LaCroix we all know and love/love to hate). This is an unexpected turn of events. (My spouse, first time FK viewer on this journey through the show, was very surprised.)
An aside: How exactly did LaCroix get Nick there? I gather Nick can't take himself or the demon would prevent it. But I assume the demon would also kick up a fuss if someone else tried to do it. So howwwwwww? I'm going with Nick told him where to go and then he threw Nick in the trunk of the Caddy and drove him. Trunk space: It matters. Other theories?
One thing that is disappointing in this episode is the set of the exorcism. It's just not "atmospheric," you know? Turn down the lights, get some more candles in there, and make it super cold so we can see people's breath. Oh well. The scene is nonetheless nicely interspersed with flashbacks to the Spanish Inquisition (more on that later).
To LaCroix, Vanderwal is like, "Oh hi, you wouldn't be here if you didn't believe there was a god or the devil." And LaCroix is all, "This is silly."
But the demon pipes up and tells LaCroix that Nick now belongs to the demon and not LaCroix. And we then get some buy-in from LaCroix because we know he's obsessively possessive of Nick and he isn't going to put up with a supposed demon stepping on his turf. Only one supernatural being gets to push Nick around, dammit.
LaCroix ultimately has to go wayyyyyyyyy outside his comfort zone on this one. We see he is unsettled by the surroundings and events transpiring. Plus he has to acknowledge that there could be a god and a devil, and that Nick is "good." This has got to be the 9th Circle of Hell for him.
Another aside: LaCroix entertained the idea that there could be some sort of higher power back in "A More Permanent Hell" when he poured his troubles out to Nick, but that might have just been the threat of global annihilation talking.
Meanwhile, Nat drops by the loft, sees that things appear amiss and tracks down Nick. She shows up just in time for Nick to attack her as a human we care about (because let's be real, we don't care about Vanderwal).
Nick recovers. LaCroix is like, "This was all malarkey" and when Vanderwal catches him out, he puts the whammy on Vanderwal before taking off.
Back at the loft, Nick vamps out on Nat, which upsets and scares her considering he just attacked her a short while ago. But he's trying to convey the gravity of the situation and how deeply it has impacted him. He's feeling a powerful need for human blood. Yikes.
In "Night in Question," I said Nick had gone one step forward and two steps back on his quest for humanity. "Sons of Belial" was zero steps forward and three steps back.
My spouse pointed out to me that the episode is not just significant for Nick, but also for LaCroix, who my spouse described as “having a crisis of faith.” Which is right, although for LaCroix, it’s not a sudden doubt in the existence of a god, but a sudden belief in it. That along with acceptance during Nick’s exorcism that a vampire can be a moral/spiritual/idk what word I’m looking for here, “good” has got to be deeply existentially uncomfortable for him. I think he’s just going to mentally lock that up in the vault of things he’d rather not think about and throw away the key.
Whew, annnyway…
On to the flashbacks: These were great! Costumes and set, A+. LaCroix gets in some solid one liners ("Why give glory to a devil other than yourself?"). And it's all pretty dramatic. Both LaCroix and Nick seem to be in genuine peril from the Spanish Inquisition. Caught in the day and imprisoned in a cell surrounded by symbols that weaken and repel them, they're well and truly stuck. An interesting thing about this is that we see that objects of human spiritual faith harm vampires, but the people wielding those objects don't actually have to be good people. What does that say?
Nick and LaCroix's poor cellmate Sancho is only there because he refused to give his lands to the church. The inquisitor is ready to torture and kill him because of it. Nick reveals himself to be a vampire, saying he's a demon and Sancho wouldn't join him, securing Sancho's release. Unfortunately, this puts Nick and LaCroix in immediate danger as the inquisitor finally gets his moment to battle "real" demons instead of just burning innocent people alive. Nick and LaCroix themselves are almost burned in the fire. They flee the flames, but are weak and unable to repel the inquisitor. Fortunately, one good turn deserves another and Sancho comes back to save them, not believing Nick to be a demon but rather the hand of God. It was a harrowing and high stakes flashback. Good stuff.
Fun facts: I own a shooting script from this episode and the prop book "Exorcism and the Modern World" that Nick and Tracy found in the victim's apartment. (There are some pictures in this post.)
In the script, in addition to the various sign of a demonic presence at the police station, LaCroix actually gets an early preview that something is amiss, and there's an additional short scene at the station of Nick experiencing the effects of possession. It makes sense for these scenes to have been cut, but they're fun to see here.
The next scene is Nick returning to the loft so he can trip balls in the comfort of his own home instead of at work.
We start with the victim driving herself off an unfinished freeway to her fiery doom. Nick and Tracy investigate though it turns out there isn’t much to investigate because there is no actual crime here. But their path leads them to exorcist Max Vanderwal so that we can finally get to the good stuff: Nick's demonic possession!
We see it happen at the exorcism-in-progress when Nick and Tracy go to talk to Vanderwal, but Nick doesn’t know in the moment that it’s happened. Something is "off" about him though. He swerves his car when he hallucinatess an inquisitor from the Spanish Inquisition suddenly in the road. (Cue obligatory, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"). People around Nick start having physical reactions. A robber literally kills himself after, idk, looking into the void in Nick's eyes. There's a cold feeling at the station. Reese comments that people have been going home sick. There's a smell like a sewer leak at the station, which I'm assuming is not a sewer leak, but the smell of brimstone. Then the guy working on the ventilation system mysteriously gets zapped while by electricity. And Nick starts having physical reactions like something has got its grip on him. Good stuff.
Nick heads home and starts having visual and auditory hallucinations, and he looks to be losing control of himself. This demon has got to be so pumped to have landed in a vampire, the Cadillac of bodily hosts. So where's a demon ready for some action going to go? We know exactly where. (Cue the Cheers theme song.)
At the Raven, Nick immediately starts vamping out in the middle of the club and is picked up by a hot chick also looking for a Good Time. Dang you two, get a room. Conveniently, a back room at the club is available. Things heat up FAST and that's worrisome vis-a-vis the young lady's mortal existence until you see, hot damn, she's a vampire too. But things still get out of hand when Nick starts strangling her. And while we know Nick has been down for vampire frisky times at the Raven in the past, (1) this chick is not Janette, and (2) Nick's not going to engage in non-consensual choking. This is just not how Nick, at least our modern Nick, rolls.
LaCroix, meanwhile, is in top creeper form as he delightedly and voyeuristically appears on the scene. The female vampire manages to break free. Before she flees, LaCroix grabs her and threatens her into keeping her mouth shut. Because if there's one person who definitely does not care about victims of assault, it's LaCroix.
He gleefully gives his greetings to Nick, just tickled that Nick "has come back to [his] senses," though he suggests Nick dial it down just a smidge. Nick, for his part, is clearly in great distress because the fact of demon possession is finally clicking for him and he tells LaCroix about the exorcism. But for Lacroix, Nick losing control, feeling bad about it, and making lame excuses isn't exactly new ground. He's like, no, no, this is totes fine ("It is merely your true nature coming to the fore.")
Nick is adamant that he's possessed and that LaCroix must take him to the exorcist. LaCroix's response is effectively a LOL, NO. At which point, Nick grabs him by the throat and demands he do it. This demon's got a thing for choking. Well, it's one thing to assault a rando vampire you just met, and quite another when it's your master vampire. LaCroix's Not Happy about that and corrects Nick immediately, but even he starts to look a teensy bit disturbed at what he's seeing as Nick BEGS for his help.
And LaCroix takes Nick to the exorcist!!
WHAT is happening!? Where is LaCroix and what have you done with him!? He doesn't even actually believe there's a demon at this point, just believes Nick believes it (which, idk, seems like a "so what" from the LaCroix we all know and love/love to hate). This is an unexpected turn of events. (My spouse, first time FK viewer on this journey through the show, was very surprised.)
An aside: How exactly did LaCroix get Nick there? I gather Nick can't take himself or the demon would prevent it. But I assume the demon would also kick up a fuss if someone else tried to do it. So howwwwwww? I'm going with Nick told him where to go and then he threw Nick in the trunk of the Caddy and drove him. Trunk space: It matters. Other theories?
One thing that is disappointing in this episode is the set of the exorcism. It's just not "atmospheric," you know? Turn down the lights, get some more candles in there, and make it super cold so we can see people's breath. Oh well. The scene is nonetheless nicely interspersed with flashbacks to the Spanish Inquisition (more on that later).
To LaCroix, Vanderwal is like, "Oh hi, you wouldn't be here if you didn't believe there was a god or the devil." And LaCroix is all, "This is silly."
But the demon pipes up and tells LaCroix that Nick now belongs to the demon and not LaCroix. And we then get some buy-in from LaCroix because we know he's obsessively possessive of Nick and he isn't going to put up with a supposed demon stepping on his turf. Only one supernatural being gets to push Nick around, dammit.
LaCroix ultimately has to go wayyyyyyyyy outside his comfort zone on this one. We see he is unsettled by the surroundings and events transpiring. Plus he has to acknowledge that there could be a god and a devil, and that Nick is "good." This has got to be the 9th Circle of Hell for him.
Another aside: LaCroix entertained the idea that there could be some sort of higher power back in "A More Permanent Hell" when he poured his troubles out to Nick, but that might have just been the threat of global annihilation talking.
Meanwhile, Nat drops by the loft, sees that things appear amiss and tracks down Nick. She shows up just in time for Nick to attack her as a human we care about (because let's be real, we don't care about Vanderwal).
Nick recovers. LaCroix is like, "This was all malarkey" and when Vanderwal catches him out, he puts the whammy on Vanderwal before taking off.
Back at the loft, Nick vamps out on Nat, which upsets and scares her considering he just attacked her a short while ago. But he's trying to convey the gravity of the situation and how deeply it has impacted him. He's feeling a powerful need for human blood. Yikes.
In "Night in Question," I said Nick had gone one step forward and two steps back on his quest for humanity. "Sons of Belial" was zero steps forward and three steps back.
My spouse pointed out to me that the episode is not just significant for Nick, but also for LaCroix, who my spouse described as “having a crisis of faith.” Which is right, although for LaCroix, it’s not a sudden doubt in the existence of a god, but a sudden belief in it. That along with acceptance during Nick’s exorcism that a vampire can be a moral/spiritual/idk what word I’m looking for here, “good” has got to be deeply existentially uncomfortable for him. I think he’s just going to mentally lock that up in the vault of things he’d rather not think about and throw away the key.
Whew, annnyway…
On to the flashbacks: These were great! Costumes and set, A+. LaCroix gets in some solid one liners ("Why give glory to a devil other than yourself?"). And it's all pretty dramatic. Both LaCroix and Nick seem to be in genuine peril from the Spanish Inquisition. Caught in the day and imprisoned in a cell surrounded by symbols that weaken and repel them, they're well and truly stuck. An interesting thing about this is that we see that objects of human spiritual faith harm vampires, but the people wielding those objects don't actually have to be good people. What does that say?
Nick and LaCroix's poor cellmate Sancho is only there because he refused to give his lands to the church. The inquisitor is ready to torture and kill him because of it. Nick reveals himself to be a vampire, saying he's a demon and Sancho wouldn't join him, securing Sancho's release. Unfortunately, this puts Nick and LaCroix in immediate danger as the inquisitor finally gets his moment to battle "real" demons instead of just burning innocent people alive. Nick and LaCroix themselves are almost burned in the fire. They flee the flames, but are weak and unable to repel the inquisitor. Fortunately, one good turn deserves another and Sancho comes back to save them, not believing Nick to be a demon but rather the hand of God. It was a harrowing and high stakes flashback. Good stuff.
Fun facts: I own a shooting script from this episode and the prop book "Exorcism and the Modern World" that Nick and Tracy found in the victim's apartment. (There are some pictures in this post.)
In the script, in addition to the various sign of a demonic presence at the police station, LaCroix actually gets an early preview that something is amiss, and there's an additional short scene at the station of Nick experiencing the effects of possession. It makes sense for these scenes to have been cut, but they're fun to see here.
The next scene is Nick returning to the loft so he can trip balls in the comfort of his own home instead of at work.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-07 11:43 pm (UTC)I encourage you to enjoy it if you have not already!